Pirate Dreams
by Astramina
Summary: Caris is a hard working, fun loving, english college student, but when she dreams, she dreams of pirates. But there's nothing wrong with that. They're only dreams after all, right?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the PotC characters, only the ones that I make up.  
  
Notes For The Reader: This is set in England so if some of the details don't make sense to you, do some research or something ;o)  
  
-  
  
Pirate Dreams  
  
Chapter 1  
  
A tall black haired girl in her late teens threw down her bag on her bed, and then followed suit, flopping her arms over the sides and nuzzling her soft pillow sleepily. It had been the hardest day of her life – two essays, a practical and many lessons comprised of her furiously trying to scribble down what the teachers were saying. She wiggled to pull the bag out from where it was poking her in the hip.  
  
The problem was, Caris was smart and had decided to take as many science subjects as she could whilst at college. Now she was in her final term and found herself doing Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Maths as A levels. Work had never dragged her down, she had never let it, so all she could complain about was how tired she was. Occasionally she found herself longing for the weekend on a Monday afternoon, but scolded herself for being lazy. Now, however, it was Friday, and Caris wasn't going to let anything get between her and her local, the Pipe and Compass.  
  
Well, maybe she'd have a quick nap first.  
  
No sooner had she closed her eyes was she dreaming. She was in a dimly lit tavern full of old men and women. As she looked around she saw one or two young faces, but they were covered in dirt and grease. Not a single person was dressed in normal clothes, but looking down at her own attire, Caris realised that she must be the only one that didn't fit in there. It was a noisy place. Somewhere beyond Caris' field of vision a band was playing what sounded like folk music, but it was smothered by the sounds of laughing and shrieking.  
  
She was sitting at a table in the darkest corner of the tavern. No one was paying her any attention, and to a certain extent, Caris was glad. The small amount of light came from candles and torches in wrought iron holders dotted around the tavern walls. A thick layer of smoke hung around the low ceiling, but through it Caris could make out a few pictures. Apart from that the walls were bare plaster that at one time would have been described as white. However, smoke, liquor and bodily fluids had long since stained it a mottled dark grey/tan colour.  
  
All of the furniture was made of wood and looked like it was centuries old. Around the walls were long benches and the centre of the room was full of tatty, three-legged stools. The table at which she sat was empty except for a small pile of wax left from a burnt out candle.  
  
"Well, well. Now where did you come from?" a slightly slurred, slightly husky mans voice said from next to her.  
  
She turned to face a young man with long black dreadlocks and a thin but well-defined face. Holding back his hair was a red bandana and in his hand was a tankard of what Caris presumed to be beer, however her nose disagreed – the mans whole presence stank of ale.  
  
"I didn't see you come in." He said after a swig of whatever was in the tankard. The man had a southern accent that Caris couldn't place, but it could have just been the effects of too much booze.  
  
"So." Caris replied calmly.  
  
"So... what's a strangely dressed beauty such as yourself doing here, eh?"  
  
Caris smiled at the stranger, "I came for a drink."  
  
"Now that..." the man swayed back on his stool, as if about to fall off, but landed against the wall behind him, "...I find hard to believe. Are you in the navy?"  
  
Caris looked down at her clothes. All she was wearing was jeans and a plain black t-shirt. She sniggered, then laughed out loud at the suggestion. She decided to play along since it was only a dream.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I just quit." She said. The man swayed forwards and leaned his elbows on the table, raised his eyebrows and nodded at what she was saying, wanting her to continue. "Too many chauvinists with more money than brains, thinking they are gods gift because they have a big sword and a fancy hat."  
  
The stranger threw his head back, laughing, and swayed back to rest against the wall again.  
  
"So, where are you from, my dear?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow, his head lolling from side to side slightly.  
  
"Buy me a drink," Caris said boldly, "and I may just tell you."  
  
The man turned to the bar and shouted something loud and slurred at the man serving there. The man ignored him, he obviously hadn't heard. Frowning, the dreadlocked man stood, bracing himself against the table with one hand, and the wall with the other.  
  
"Hey!!" he shouted as loud as he could. The bar keeper looked up and nodded in his direction, so he swayed back to the table and sat down, almost missing the chair.  
  
He looked across to where the strange girl had been, but she was gone.  
  
-  
  
"Caris, Caris..."  
  
Someone called to her as they shook her shoulder. Caris lifted her head off the pillow and half opened her eyes. Her mum was shaking her gently with one hand, and in her other hand she held the phone. "It's Sarah." she said handing the phone to her.  
  
"Hello?" Caris said, trying to wake herself up.  
  
"Aren't you coming?" her friends voice said. There were voices and music in the background. Caris looked at the clock. 6:45  
  
"Shit, sorry. I fell asleep." she explained.  
  
"No excuses!" Sarah yelled back at her and cheering followed from, who Caris knew were all of her other friends, waiting for her at the Pipe and Compass.  
  
"Ok, ok. I'll be there in 10 minutes." Caris said, hung up, pulled her shoes on, grabbed a jumper and left for the pub, which was a 5 minute walk away.  
  
-  
  
"Your punishment for almost standing us up is to get the next round." Sarah exclaimed as Caris arrived at the pub to find them sitting at their usual table in the corner farthest from the door. Caris noticed how similar it was to the dark corner of the pub she had dreamed about. The lights were dotted around the place in clusters of two or three, there were candles on every table, many of which had burnt out, and the walls were void of any decoration except a few pictures of ships and the sea. The ceiling was low and was supported by black beams of old driftwood.  
  
Caris and her friends always sat in the back room where the darts board and bar billiards table were. It was never as crowded as the main room. Caris reckoned this was because all the younger punters wanted to be by the juke box and all the older punters wanted to be closer to the bar. All the regulars had their own places where they always sat, and most of the non- regular customers only stopped by for a short time.  
  
Caris and her friends visited the Pipe and Compass at least once a week. They were all friends with the landlord, who overlooked the fact that they were all 17 when they first started visiting the pub. Now they were in their second year at college and were all old enough to drink there legally. Although they all agreed it wasn't as much fun as when they had been underage, but that didn't stop them meeting in their usual spot every week to get completely ratted.  
  
They all laughed as loudly as they could. John had just tipped his glass up too far and had splashed it over his face and shirt. Caris looked at her watch. 11:28.  
  
"Almost last orders, guys."  
  
"I'll have another then, cheers Caris."  
  
"Hey! No way, I've already got a round in. It's your turn, Sarah."  
  
"What, no way."  
  
The rest of the group started giving Sarah their orders. Caris looked around the back room. In the corner opposite them sat a man, shadows covered his face but by the light coming from their table, she could see long black dreadlocks draped over his shoulder.  
  
"You're closest, Caris." Sarah thrust a 20 into her hand and pushed her out towards the bar.  
  
"What does everyone want?"  
  
They all shouted their orders at her again. She waved her hand at them and turned towards the bar again. The corner where the man had been seemed darker than before. She stopped mid step and stared at it.  
  
"What are you doing?" Kim yelled at her.  
  
Caris turned back to the table. "I thought I saw someone there"  
  
Kim picked up an empty packet of crisps and threw it into the corner where Caris had been looking. It bounced on the wall and landed on the seat where Caris had been looking. The darkness seemed to become lighter and Caris could see that the corner was now empty, whether it had been empty before or not.  
  
Some of her friends started singing the x-files theme. Caris rolled her eyes, shook her head and went to the bar.  
  
-  
  
by Astramina 


	2. Chapter 2

Pirate Dreams  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Caris giggled and stumbled on the edge of the pavement along which she had been trying to balance. Kim reached out to grab her sleeve but missed and just laughed with her friends. It was midnight, the Pipe and Compass was closed and all that awaited the group was a long, sobering walk home. Caris was the first stop since she lived so close to the pub. She said goodnight and after struggling with the key, tiptoeing up the stairs and wrestling to get her clothes off, Caris flopped onto her bed and fell straight asleep.  
  
-  
  
The sun was shining, the sea sparkled blue and a fresh breeze whipped Caris's long black hair across her face. Caris brushed her hair back behind her ears and breathed in deeply. The air was salty but fresh. She looked down to see she was dressed in her bathing costume and standing alone on the deck of an ancient sailing ship. It creaked under her as the wind shifted, and the billowing white sails tugged at their restraints.  
  
"The winds have shifted. This isn't a good sign." A deep, commanding voice stated from behind her. Caris turned and saw a smartly dressed man whom she hadn't noticed before. He was obviously the captain of the ship she was on. He wore a dazzlingly clean uniform, blue overcoat, white lapels with gold stitching and embroidery. A black three cornered hat sat on top of an orderly crop of black/grey hair.  
  
The man he was talking to was younger and also dressed in a navy blue uniform but it wasn't nearly as smartly decorated as the older mans and distinctly lacked a hat. The younger man didn't comment on the captains remarks. He stared past the captain and looked directly at Caris, his face as white as a sheet.  
  
"Gods, Samson, you look like you've see a ghost." the captain remarked, turning to see what Samson had been staring at. His mouth dropped open when he saw Caris. Caris looked at them quizzically, then smiled.  
  
"Hi there, how's it going?" she said politely. The two men just gaped at her. The younger backed away slightly.  
  
"Ay, there be a change in th' winds. We'd best be headin' off." A deep, thickly accented voice called from the cabin, announcing the arrival of a grey haired man dressed in a dirty white shirt, faded blue overcoat and loose but dirty trousers tied at the waist with a piece of rope. His hair was wind-swept and seemed to creep down his cheeks like carpet, to meet under his thin as a thick beard. Caris snorted at the sight of the sheer amount of hair on this mans face, but quickly covered her mouth, blushing, as the man turned to frown at her.  
  
"What in the..." he looked her up and down. Caris realised that in her peculiar setting she must have looked very out of place in a swimsuit.  
  
For no reason in particular, she grinned madly at the newcomer "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just going for a dive." She said merrily, and with that she climbed onto the deck railing, raised her arms above her head and dove down to the water below.  
  
Shouts of shock and surprise erupted behind her but soon faded out until only the rushing of air past her ears was left. It felt like she had been falling forever, not that she minded. Flying was the best feeling in the world, even if it was only a dream. Caris pulled her arms back and held them out at her sides. She turned until she was parallel to the water and glided along calmly until she slowed to a stop, only hovering over the water.  
  
Odd, she thought, suspended in mid air. She waved her arms back and forth but didn't move. She thrashed her arms and legs about madly. Still nothing. Suddenly, the floating feeling was gone and she fell onto the water. It was hard like the ground, but soft and furry, like an animal.  
  
-  
  
Caris hit her head. She winced in pain and when she opened her eyes her whole world was black. After a stunned moment her eyes grew accustomed to the dark and she realised that she was lying on the rug in her bedroom, with her duvet in a crumpled heap on the opposite side of the bed to her. Picking herself up, Caris rubbed her head. It ached. After a quick stop in the bathroom, Caris straightened out her bedding and fell back to sleep with ease.  
  
-  
  
Caris felt warm and comfortable. She could feel sunlight on her face and her body, caressing her exposed flesh. A soft wind danced around her. It brushed the loose, unruly threads of hair away from her face and whispered to her as it played amongst the trees and bushes. Caris raised her arms and stretched. Her bones ached and tingled as the feeling flowed back into them.  
  
"Mmm..." she sighed as the wind picked up and brushed against her again. It stroked her cheek and rested under her chin.  
  
For a moment it seemed to develop a rough texture, but Caris didn't have the opportunity to examine the texture further. She opened her eyes to find herself staring at a pair of dark brown eyes, framed with dark eyebrows pulled together in a frown. The eyes moved closer and stared into her own dark blue eyes. Caris pulled back as far as she could to get away from them but her head rested against something firm.  
  
"What are you doing up here, then..." a husky, drawling voice with a familiar accent said vacantly. The face moved closer until their noses were almost touching.  
  
Caris drew in a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could. The man jumped and drew back in shock, eyebrows raised. He wobbled slightly, and then disappeared from Caris's view.  
  
Thud.  
  
Caris sat up where she was. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened. Surveying her surroundings, still feeling groggy, Caris came to the following conclusions:  
  
1. She was in a tree.  
  
2. She was on an island.  
  
3. There didn't seem to be any other people apart from her and the strangely familiar man, but she couldn't quite remember where she knew him from.  
  
4. In this interesting groggy state she now found herself in, she didn't have any balance.  
  
Thud.  
  
"Ooof."  
  
The man groaned and drew in deep breaths. Caris sat up again. She was definitely on the ground now, lying across the man who had cushioned her landing. She stood up and staggered forward, tripped over her own feet, and managed to stop herself falling by hitting a tree. Above her was the branch she had woken up on.  
  
The man was now standing and had regained his breath. Suddenly it came to Caris where she had seen this man before.  
  
"You're that dream guy!" she said, then mentally kicked herself for sounding so stupid. Was it possible for someone to be drunk in their dream?  
  
The man raised an eyebrow at her. Caris decided to change tact. "What were you doing in my tree?"  
  
"You're tree?"  
  
"Yeah, and this is my island. You'd better have a good reason for being here." Caris stood and folded her arms."  
  
"Nice try, love. I've been visiting this island... regularly, you could say, and I've never seen you before."  
  
"Visiting?" Caris smiled. "Well where's your boat?"  
  
"Don't have one at the moment," he replied, taking an unsure step towards her, "I'm in the market."  
  
Caris smirked, her senses returning to her, "I see." The man walked past her and headed off through the thin scattering of trees, as if looking for something.  
  
"You won't find one there. Boats are usually kept in the water." Caris stated. The man chose to ignore her.  
  
Caris wasn't too bothered by his ignoring her, or his presence, so she walked away from him, towards the shore, to survey her newest surroundings. If it wasn't a dream, Caris could have sworn she was on holiday on an exotic island. White sand, blue sky, crystal clear water, and Caris - dressed in her jeans and plain black t-shirt.  
  
A rustling sound behind her indicated that the strange dread-locked man was back. He walk up next to her and pushed a bottle of what looked like murky water, into her hand.  
  
"This'll make you feel better, love." he said. He flopped down to sit in the sand and took a swig of his own bottle of murky liquid.  
  
"I have a name." Caris said. "I'm Caris. What about you?"  
  
"The names Sparrow. Captain. Jack. Sparrow."  
  
-  
  
by Astramina 


	3. Chapter 3

Pirate Dreams  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Caris nodded towards Jack as she uncorked the bottle he had given her and took a whiff. "Nice to meet you Jack Spar...pwoar!! What the HELL is this!?!?" She held the bottle away from her nose, her face was screwed up in disgust, and re-corked it.  
  
"That's Capain Jack Sparrow, and that," he nodded at the bottle in her hand, "Is all you need when stuck on a desert island. Drink of the gods. Her majesties finest... rum." He took a swig.  
  
"Uh, huh." Caris said, unimpressed. She sat down on the sand next to him. "And isn't it lucky that there's a load of rum on a Desert island." She wiggled her toes, noticing for the first time that she wasn't wearing any shoes.  
  
Jack just grinned, staring out over the emerald blue sea, and had another drink.  
  
-  
  
"So, how are we going to get off this island?" Caris asked after a while.  
  
The 'Captain' had been regularly sipping from the bottle in his hand and it was now almost empty. Caris didn't expect an answer. She looked at her own bottle. The pale green glass. The murky brown water. Slowly an idea started to form in her mind. She stood and marched back into the thin covering of trees.  
  
Jack, who was now lying on his back in the sand staring dreamily into the clear blue sky, jumped with a start as he heard a smashing sound coming from the trees through which Caris had disappeared. He staggered to his feet and stumbled his way into the trees.  
  
"NO!!" he yelled as he reached where Caris was kneeling. There was a wet patch on the sand and fragments of glass lay dotted around it. "What are you DOING!" he yelled, horrified.  
  
"I've got an idea," Caris said excitedly. In her hand she held the bottom piece of the bottle which had been left in tact, and was playing with it in her hand, "If we started a fire, a ship would surely see the smoke, and then we can get off this island."  
  
"But... the rum..."Jack staggered forward and fell to his knees at the edge of the wet sand. After a moment he stood. Through the glazed-over, sleepy look on his face, Caris could see anger in his eyes.  
  
"What IS IT with WOMEN and destroying MY RUM!!!!" He thought back to the last time he had been stranded on one of those islands. The overwhelming amount of smoke and fire, and the rum, all gone. Damn women.  
  
As he stood there, swaying back and forth, looking down at the strange woman, he felt overcome with a sense of responsibility. And nausea.  
  
"Don't light a fire." He said. Then fell back over and passed out.  
  
The way he had said it, Caris thought, he sounded so sure of himself and his voice was so clear. That must be the tone of voice he used as a captain. It was a voice strong enough to lead people and command authority. It had worked on Caris, so she put the bottle end down and waited for the incapacitated man to awaken.  
  
-  
  
There was sunlight on her face again. It wasn't as warm and comforting as it had been before, and after a moment Caris felt a pounding sensation in her head growing steadily stronger. A hangover was one of the things Caris didn't need. She very rarely got them but when she did it felt as if all hell had broken loose inside her head. It felt as if a million people were pushing to get out of her brain, and all of them were yelling at her, painting a picture, bit by painful bit, of all the events of the night before.  
  
Slowly and carefully Caris turned her head to glance the time from her bedside clock. It was 7:40. At 10:30 she had a fencing lesson, piano at 12, she had arranged to meet Kim, Sarah and Robin at 1:30 for some costume shopping in preparation for Kim's fancy dress party the next weekend, at 5 there was a barbeque that their neighbours had invited them to, and at 8 she had agreed to go for a jog with John, who lived around the corner from her.  
  
It would be a busy day, and all she really wanted to do was sleep.  
  
Caris set her alarm for 10, rolled over and dozed off again.  
  
-  
  
There was sunlight again, warming her skin as she lay wedged comfortably in what appeared to be a leafy bush. When Caris lifted her head high enough to see over the huge leaves surrounding her she saw that she was actually at the top of a palm tree, about 7 feet above the ground. The sun was low but Caris didn't know if it was morning or evening on what appeared to be the same tropical island that she had been on before.  
  
Looking down, Caris recognised the snoozing form of who she assumed to be Captain Jack Sparrow. On the ground below her feet, lying scattered in the sand, were the shards of glass from Caris' broken bottle.  
  
Taking care not to land on them, Caris swung down from the tree and walked over to the unconscious man. She kicked and prodded his side until he mumbled and muttered under his breath for her to go away. Satisfied that he wasn't dead or too comatose, Caris decided to walk around the island until he was awake.  
  
The sky was lighter than it had been when Caris awoke. It was morning, the sea was calm and the sky was, once again, completely clear.  
  
Jack was awake when she returned.  
  
"'Bout bloody time." she said with no patience. As far as her dreams went, this one took the cake for being the most boring.  
  
"I guess it's morning." He staggered to his feet.  
  
Caris didn't reply. She picked up the bottle end and turned to the now standing man. "Can I light a fire now?"  
  
"Yeah, but first..." he reached deep into one of his pockets, "This is for you."  
  
At first Caris thought he had pulled out a stick. It was a small, smooth cylinder about as long as the distance between her thumb and little finger when she stretched them as far apart as she could. On closer inspection, she realised it was actually a small gold rod with an assortment of tiny stones and jewels laid into it in a spiral, which wrapped itself around the rod.  
  
She took it from Jack's outstretched hand and traced the line the jewels created with her finger. At one end there was a black obsidian circle about the size of a penny. From it came a thin trail of minute coloured stones varying from black tourmaline to dark green olivine. The dark green merged via a continuous stream of different crystals, into blue emerald, then lavender and purple amethysts, blood red ruby to dazzling orange citrine, yellow aventurine and then on to clean white quartz. At the opposite end of the rod was another penny-sized stone, a clear diamond.  
  
"What's this?" she asked after her inspection.  
  
Jack moved his face closer to hers, his hands held loosely together in front of him, "You mean you don't know?"  
  
Caris raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. The way he spoke was as if it were common knowledge.  
  
"Hm." Jack withdrew, "So you really don't know. Well. It's a sceptre." He waved his hands and arms, gesticulating wildly to accompany his explanation. "Rumour has it that it was created by Metztli, the Aztec god of the moon, and Tonatiuh, the Aztec god of the sun, to control the flow of time." He paused and took a swaying step backwards. "However, the god of death and resurrection, Quetzalcoatl, stole it and enchanted it with all sorts of spells, curses and magical mumbo-jumbo."  
  
"Of course." Caris nodded, taking in everything he was saying but not really believing it.  
  
"So, for some reason it got lost and every 100 years or so," he swayed sideways, "It pops up somewhere in the world, and subsequently..." he stepped back up to Caris and clasped his hands together, "...disappears..."  
  
"Soo.." Caris started once she had determined that that was as good as Jacks explanation was going to get, "Why'd you give it to me?"  
  
"Oh, you also need to strap it to your arm before you go to sleep." he said turning away from her to stare out across the sea.  
  
Caris was so unbelievably confused, she didn't notice the faint beeping sound until it had grown to a loud blaring siren echoing around her head.  
  
-  
  
Caris opened her eyes with a start. The noise of her alarm hurt her ears. She turned over to switch it off, only to be met with an uncomfortable jab in her side. When silence prevailed again, Caris reached under her quilt and felt something cold, cylindrical and bumpy.  
  
Slowly, Caris closed her grip on the unknown object and pulled it out from under the covers and held it up, watching it shine in the light coming from between the curtains. She puzzled over it's decoration and shivered, despite still being wrapped up in her warm bed.  
  
It was the sceptre.  
  
-  
  
by astramina 


	4. Chapter 4

Pirate Dreams

Chapter 4

It was 10am and Caris was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, hardly daring to breathe as she ran her hand over the small golden rod that lay beside her.

It was a dream, she told herself, I'm probably just imagining it. She reached out her fingers and quickly withdrew them as if she'd touched a hot pan. But it wasn't hot - it was cold. Cold, smooth and unnervingly real.

Caris threw off her quilt, covering the thing from view, and headed to the bathroom. From there she only briefly glanced at the folded quilt on her bed as she packed up her equipment for fencing and left for her lesson at the local rec.

-

"Wow!" someone yelled after her as she left the Rec, hot, sweaty and tired after an hour of rigorous physical anger relief. Looking around, Caris saw it was the last partner she had sparred with, Gary.

"You were really great! We should spar more often, you know." he fell in step with her hurried march home.

"Yeah, OK." she said, not especially wanting to talk, only to get home and check her bedding.

"I'll see you later." he said, and waved as he crossed the road towards his house. Caris nodded and then carried on in silent anticipation until she got home.

She almost flew up the stairs to her bedroom, tossing her kit on the floor. She picked up the duvet, held it up in front of her and shook it violently.

Something clattered to the floor.

Slowly, Caris lowered the duvet.

The sceptre lay there on the floor. It's gold finish shone in the sunlight streaming through her bedroom window. The rainbow of jewels twirled around the shaft, exposing different colours as it rolled slowly across the carpet.

A lump swelled in her throat and sat there uncomfortably as Caris watched it. Nothing happened. Her stomach slowly turned over and each breath became louder and louder until a rushing sound filled her ears. Tiny prickles of light danced around the corners of her eyes. The blood rushed to her cheeks and Caris' vision became blurred. As she blinked, her surroundings darkened and she fell forwards, landing safely on the end of her bed, unconscious.

-

The darkness lightened into a swarm of red flashes and flickering grey shadows. The rushing sound became more defined as voices and music mingled together. Caris blinked, and slowly her surroundings became clearer.

She was back in the tavern.

"Now where did you go?" a slurred voice asked from next to her. She wasn't as surprised as she had thought she would be when she found herself sitting next to Captain Jack Sparrow at the same table as the one she had dreamed about.

"The little girls room." she replied, leaning forward to rest her arms on the table and get a better view of her surroundings.

Jack just raised an eyebrow at her and took a sip from a tankard in his hand. After a moment of silence, or at least silence between the pair of them in the noisy hostelry, Jack gestured lazily at a second mug on the table, "That's yours, by the way, so now, mind telling me where it is you're from?"

Caris opened her mouth to speak but at that moment the door slammed open with such violence that a deadly silence fell upon the occupants of the tavern. In from the dark streets came a dozen men with long, tied back hair. They all wore similar long, dark coloured jackets over loose, light brown shirts and black trousers. Each of them had a sword hanging at one side, and a holstered pistol at the other. Leading the group was a man with short, shaved hair with a navy blue bandana covering most of it. His jacket was smarter than the others, with large lapels, a high collar and long cuffs fastened with two sets of plain silver buttons.

Their boots clapped along the floor as they made their way to the bar, looking cautiously around at the other clientele as they went.

"Your sort ain't welcome 'ere." a man shouted from somewhere on the other side of the room. The leaders head snapped to scowl in the direction of the voice.

"Well, well. What have we here..." Jack murmured quietly from next to Caris. She looked at him. All visual hints of drunkenness had instantaneously disappeared and he was leaning forward to get a good look at the strangers.

The leader looked around, opened his mouth and said clearly "RINNNGGGGG RINNNGGGG."

-

Caris' eyes flew open.

RINNNGGGGG RINNNGGGG

The phone. Caris picked herself up off the bed and hurried out to the hall to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is that Caris?" A gravely mans voice said.

"Yes..." Caris replied.

"This is Mr. Harrison, Julie's husband." The wheels started turning in Caris's head. Mr. Harrison continued, "I'm phoning on Julie's behalf, she's ill so I'm afraid she won't be able to take your piano lesson today."

It all clicked. "OH! That's no problem, It'll give me a chance to finish some coursework," Caris laughed, "So what's wrong with Julie?"

"Oh, it's just a cold but she's taking it easy, just in case."

"I suppose that's the best thing to do."

"Yeah, she says she'll make it up to you sometime during the week."

"OK, we can sort that out later, then. Thanks for calling Mr. Harrison."

"No problem, bye."

"Bye"

Caris hung up the phone and walked back to her room. The Sceptre lay on the floor where it had fallen, as did the quilt. Stunned, confused, anxious, apprehensive. On top of these feelings pressed a familiar nervous panic about coursework, surrounded by an strange feeling of unimportance.

Until now Caris had forgotten about one small outstanding essay, due the following week. It was only 2000 words that Caris had already written out in draft, but now the labourious task of proof reading it again and again...

Caris sighed and sat at the desk in the corner of her room, her back to the rest of her room, and pulled out various pieces of paper and text books.

-

An hour later Caris was completely fed up with photosynthesis and cell respiration, but she was finally able to close her text books and put away her notes. In front of her lay the final copy of her essay. Caris looked at it, grinned and yawned, stretching her arms high above her and arching her back.

Something didn't feel quite right. All the good feelings about finishing her work vanished as her mind moved on to the next thing weighing her down. That damned sceptre.

Caris slid her chair back and as she swung her leg out to stand, her foot knocked something on the floor.

How the.. Caris thought as she stared at the sceptre. How did you get over here...

Something caught her eye as she bent to pick it up. Her body froze but her hand closed around the sceptre. A chill ran down her spine as she stood, gripping it tightly, and turned to face the bed. Slowly, her gaze wandered from the golden rod in her hand, to a dark figure perched on the end of the bed. She took a step back and swept her hands behind her, concealing the sceptre from the stranger in her room.

He wore a light brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar open wide, exposing some of his chest. He wore black trousers and his feet were bare and dirty. His long straight black hair fell loosely around his shoulders, and when his eyes met with Caris's, she saw that they were dull grey/blue, like a cloudy twilit sky. His face was stern but his features were soft, defined cheeks, thick eyebrows, red lips, square chin. His tanned skin gave him a foreign appearance.

The man frowned at her, then stood and took a step forward. He looked her up and down, then glanced left and right, briefly taking in his surroundings.

When he looked at her again, their eyes met and Caris felt as though all the breath had been drawn out of her. She gasped as the man took a few more steps towards. He moved to the side, trying to see what Caris held behind her, but Caris shifted too, to block his view.

He took a few more steps towards her, and a few more until she could have reached out and touched him. The Sceptre tingled in Caris' hand. Grasping it tightly, she side-stepped away from her desk and backed away from the man until she touched the wall.

The tingling sensation in her hand increased. Caris felt as if she was being opened up, her mind was being revealed to this man, and through her, a warmth emulating from the sceptre flowed. The man lifted his head as the warmth reached him and took another step towards her.

He looked down at her from where he stood, inches in front of her face.

Go away. Caris repeated in her mind over and over again, unable to open her mouth and form the words. Give me what I'm looking for, his voice seemed to speak into her mind. The hand holding the sceptre shook behind Caris's back.

He took another step towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders, gently pulling her away from the wall. He pressed his body on to hers and let his hands slide down her arms until they arrived at her clenched fist.

The shaking spread to her arms and then her whole body trembled as the stranger rubbed his rough calloused hands over her hand holding the Sceptre. Feeling her shake, the man released her hand and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace.

He rested his chin on her shoulder and spoke to her softly, trying to calm her down. His voice soothed Caris's nerves but her grip remained firm on the sceptre.

Don't worry, his voice echoed in her mind again, the sceptre's all I want. I won't hurt you.

Who are you, Caris thought, more to herself than to him but she knew that he'd heard her. She thought back to the last time she'd visited that strange tavern in her dreams and as she replayed the events, came to the conclusion that he must be one of the strangers that had intrigued Jack so much.

The man holding her frowned as a scene played out in his mind. Caris could feel his reactions of surprise, confusion and then a mild understanding as her memory flowed to him. He saw the tavern, the old men and women, the dirty walls, old paintings and Jack. He saw all of it as if it were his own memory, and then felt her arrive at the same question - who are you?

I'm no-one important, he said and pulled her close to him again as he felt her tremble in his embrace, this is only a dream, after all.

It's not a dream to me, Caris replied. Although his voice was soft, Caris could almost feeling his mind working as she spoke. He only wanted the sceptre but now the idea of killing her was playing on his mind. He enjoyed killing, he was, after all, a pirate.

Who are you, Caris thought again. She could feel the end of his patience start to fray. His body became cold. Suddenly, every part of her body that touched his tingled. The Sceptre now burned hot in her hand as his touch became ever colder.

"GIVE IT TO ME!!!" He roared in her ear. Caris pulled away, trying to escape his grasp as a chill shook her body. GO AWAY!! She screwed up her eyes and felt him release her. Her body became cold and she swayed backwards, then stumbled forward onto her knees.

Opening her eyes, Caris looked around to find that she was alone in her room. Her hands, now clenched in front of her, were shaking violently.

Looking down, Caris saw that she still held the Sceptre in her hand. She threw it across the floor and scowled at it as she knelt on her bedroom floor shaking.

What the hell...?

-

by Astramina


End file.
